Sender has been building a reputation as an affordable email marketing platform since 2012, and today it counts more than 180,000 businesses in its user base. The platform handles newsletters, automation workflows, transactional emails, and SMS under one roof, whereas many competitors split those features across multiple pricing tiers or reserve them for higher-cost plans.

We’ve been reviewing email marketing software at TechRadar Pro for over a decade, covering platforms from Mailchimp and Brevo to ActiveCampaign and Omnisend year after year. This Sender review is based on hands-on testing across the platform’s automation, template, and form-building tools, cross-referenced against official documentation and verified user reviews.

Players who swapped Game Boy Advance cartridges as kids will remember the thrill of returning to Hyrule for the final time in 2004. That was the year The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap was released, a game that many people overlooked but provided one of the series’ most original ideas to date. Fast forward to now: an unofficial native port allows you to run the game natively on Windows or Linux, without the need for an emulator or the hassle of an odd setup.

The story begins in Hyrule Town at the annual Picori Festival, which is a bustling time with a sword-fighting event and plenty of celebrating to be done. Link and his friend Zelda go out to enjoy the environment, but the fun is short-lived. Some unexpected guest enters and puts the princess in a difficult situation, and the story takes off from there. What follows is a retelling of the Four Sword legend’s early days, complete with a new primary enemy in the form of wind master Vaati. The tale remains light and fluffy, with plenty of beautiful moments tossed in for good measure, thanks to some exchanges with the Minish inhabitants who happen to share the game’s name.

Gameplay-wise, it’s returning to the classic top-down view of previous portable Zelda adventures. So Link gets to stroll through bright meadows, calm forests, and bustling villages, solving puzzles and clearing dungeons along the way, but the true twist comes early on, when he gains the ability to shrink himself down to Minish size. One minute he’s too big to cross a puddle, the next he’s slipping through small entrances that are undetectable to his usual size and discovering all sorts of hidden worlds, entire secret societies living beneath floorboards and within hollow tree stumps. That size adjustment completely alters the vibe of each location. Grass blades grow taller than trees, rains become hazards, and everyday home items become towering hurdles.

Three new tools really make the shrinking mechanic pop. The Mole Mitts allow Link to tunnel through dirt walls that restrict his way in either size, and you will use them frequently. The Gust Jar allows him to suck in adversaries or stray objects and blast them out with all his might. The Cane of Pacci flips some blocks or platforms, causing them to act in new and helpful ways. Each of these equipment sees extensive use throughout the six main dungeons and the enormous overworld that connects them. Dungeons are a terrific mix of battle, block-pushing, and cunning platforming, all adapted to both Link’s sizes. The boss fights are satisfying without ever feeling awkward or overwhelming.

The PC port is the result of a comprehensive decompilation exercise that recreated the game’s source code from scratch. MatheoVignaud, the developer, built it all natively to operate on modern hardware, using SDL3 for input and display, as well as a software renderer that emulates Game Boy Advance hardware. Pre-built versions are available on the GitHub releases site for both Windows and Linux. Simply drop your own ROM file next to the executable, run the accompanying asset extractor once, and you’re good to go. Saves are automatically saved in a simple tmc.sav file in the same folder as the program.
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The reMarkable Paper Pure is, without a doubt, one of the nicest e-paper writing slates I’ve spent a lot of time with. The writing experience is more or less identical to the one found on the Paper Pros, and it’s an enormously well-crafted experience. I’m a big fan of the display and I’m fairly sure it’s more responsive to page swipes and refreshes than its siblings. Given what people will use this device for, I’m not even sure they’re going to miss the color display. I certainly didn’t, which even I was surprised about, but then color isn’t a necessity for a slate of this type. If you’re just handwriting long notes and editing, you’re probably not stopping every few scrawls to change ink color or highlight something anyway.

I’ll go further and say the Paper Pure is a far better device than the Paper Pro Move, which I found too small to be useful. In hindsight, the Move was likely a distraction if it held up engineering resources that could have gone to this. I’ve found it very easy to lean back in an armchair and scratch out my thoughts about this device in my time with the Pure. Plus, it’s an excellent e-reader that doesn’t burn out your eyes, and it’s great for journaling and sketching out the earliest design plans for projects.

reMarkable’s intentionality encompasses AI: The company won’t put any gen-AI crap on its gear for obvious reasons. But it does use machine learning to analyze your handwriting and, when you upload your documents to reMarkable’s sharing page, it’ll create AI summaries and extract action items. Plus, if you upload a file to, for instance, design website Miro, the AI will try and extract your writing and diagrams, digitizing them for the platform in question. These are all sensible and perfectly valid uses for the technology in my opinion, greasing the wheels of your workday rather than allowing you to outsource your thinking.

The basic stuff hasn’t changed. You create notebooks, using a variety of paper styles and templates. You can import .PDF and .EPUB files to read and amend, and can edit text directly if you can brave the on-screen keyboard. If your handwriting is clear enough (and mine rarely is) you can convert your scrawl to text, and the system will even let you search through your handwritten notes. Once done, you can share a .PDF of your work via email, Google Drive, Slack or various other third-party clients.

reMarkable supports native import of .DOCX files, which you’re able to edit with the stylus. When you want to export that file back to your computer, you’ll get an AI summary of the recommended changes. But, much like the exports of .PDF and .EPUB files, you’ll still have to manually copy-paste those amendments in your original document. Which, if I’m honest, doesn’t seem like a particularly efficient way of doing things, especially given who the company is pitching itself to now.

One of the new enterprise-friendly features is calendar integration, which will let you create and file meeting notes specific to each event. If it’s, say, a recurring meeting, the system will tie all of those together in the same workbook so you aren’t hunting for notes. Sadly, what you can’t do with this feature is automate some of the busywork that comes with using the slate as a day planner. There’s a small ecosystem of creators who sell custom .PDFs for use as planners or journals tailored to people’s specific use cases. This prompted reMarkable to launch Methods, a more dynamic system to do the same thing, but it lacks the joined up thinking that such a feature could benefit from. After all, I’d love it if my reMarkable planner automatically filled in the information from my integrated calendar.

For a while you’ve been able to share the screen of your reMarkable to a computer but that’s gotten a lot more useful. You can share it via a USB-C cable or wirelessly to the company’s web client to conduct presentations. Even better, and another sign of reMarkable’s elegant design choices, is that if you hover the stylus a few millimetres over the display, it’ll turn into a laser pointer with a slowly-diappearing light trail. So, if you need to highlight something in your presentation or brainstorming session, you can do so without affecting what’s on your workbook.

Unfortunately, all of these innovations are targeted so squarely at companies that regular folks might feel a bit elbowed out. It doesn’t help that while the device itself is a joy to use, it’s increasingly obvious the ecosystem that surrounds it is not. The friction inherent in moving a document on and off the slate, the extra steps in the workflow that it creates, are charming only in isolation.

Work on DDR6 memory is already underway, but it’ll be a while before it shows up in your next PC.

According to reports, Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron have all begun early development of the next-gen standard. They are quietly kicking off the process years ahead of any real-world launch.

Right now, the companies have shared early designs with substrate manufacturers, who are building prototypes and running verification tests. That’s typical for memory development. The groundwork often starts more than two years before anything becomes official. However, it also underlines just how early DDR6 still is.

The reason for the push is simple: speed. DDR6 is expected to more than double the data rates of DDR5, which currently tops out at around 8.4Gbps. That kind of jump would bring a noticeable boost to performance. This is especially true for demanding workloads such as AI, data centres and high-end computing, all of which are contributing to the current RAM shortage.

After a stellar Find X9 launch, the OPPO Find X9 Ultra will soon be available in India, bringing some exciting changes to the device, specifically aimed at boosting its camera performance. The firm is shifting its focus to hardware to enhance optical zoom capabilities, rather than relying too heavily on software.

The star attraction is QPPS, a new periscope architecture that enhances the feasibility of extended-range optical zoom. In most smartphones, optical zoom is achieved using a single prism that deflects the light path horizontally. Although this design boosts zoom range, it is constrained by the space available in the phone body.

What is QPPS?

The QPPS (Quintuple Prism Periscope Structure) is designed to extend zoom using a smarter internal setup. In the camera body, the light reflects five times before hitting the sensor, thereby increasing the length of the optical pathway. Furthermore, the OPPO Find X9 Ultra can increase its focal length without compromising its thinness. The phone, therefore, can achieve true 10x optical zoom, equivalent to a 230mm lens.

An additional benefit of optical zoom is its ability to maintain image quality. Since the zoom is handled by the camera hardware, there’s less need for cropping or digital enhancement. This leads to sharper and more natural images. In everyday use, it improves shots of distant subjects and creates a pleasing background blur. It also ensures that image quality doesn’t drop suddenly as you move between zoom levels.

A multi-reflection system improves zoom, but it also complicates light handling. Each reflection point can introduce distortion or scattered light, which can affect the final image. Without proper control, this could lead to reduced sharpness and contrast.

To overcome this, OPPO uses a refined optical design that keeps light under control throughout its path. By applying highly precise adjustments, the camera is less affected by light, ensuring image quality. It means that you can take better shots with high zoom levels.

Camera

The phone has a 200 MP resolution camera that delivers high-quality photos, a 3X zoom camera that is useful for shooting in low light, and an ultra-wide camera that captures a wider view.

These elements combine to form an equilibrium system applicable to various situations. In cases where one is shooting portraits, scenery, or distant objects, the camera can do all that. Moreover, it features 4K Dolby Vision video recording capabilities, hence being suitable for photography and video recording.

Software

In this camera system, software plays a supporting role. The LUMO Image Engine focuses on refining the image rather than artificially generating details. Instead of using software to create details that do not exist in the image, the technology uses high-powered hardware to generate the main image. This helps create a more realistic image with natural details. Afterward, the software is used to enhance the final image through minor adjustments to colors and brightness.

Software often plays a bigger role than the camera hardware itself. However, OPPO approaches this issue from a different angle, focusing more on hardware advancements. It results in more realistic and natural pictures. Also, there is better performance during long-range zoom operations.

from the creatives-using-tools-as-tools dept

While we’ve taken some issues with his approach to copyright laws and enforcement in the past, there is no doubting that Steven Soderbergh is a filmmaking legend. This is a man who directed films like Traffic and Ocean’s 11. He talks about, and cares about, the art of filmmaking. And he’s apparently beginning to use AI in some limited ways.

You really have to pay attention to Soderbergh’s specific comments on how he’s using it, because I would argue that it’s exactly the right artistic approach to the conversation: limited, targeted uses that help achieve the artist’s vision rather than replace everything in a film with garbage slop. Interestingly, articles like this one from Salon still frame all of this as some betrayal of art on Soderbergh’s part. Here’s how Soderbergh describes how he’s using AI as part of an upcoming film about John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

“AI has been helpful in creating thematically surreal images that occupy a dream space rather than a literal space,” Soderbergh said. “And it’s been really fun because you need a Ph.D. in literature to tell it what to do.” Soderbergh relented that generative programs require “very close human supervision,” before going on to admit that he’s also using “a lot of AI” for an upcoming film about the Spanish-American War, to generate images of archaic warships and God knows what else.

I very much understand Soderbergh’s description of how he’s using this tool for his films, but I have no idea what the hell the commentary from Salon around the quote is on about. “And God knows what else” is perhaps the silliest comment in the post, because that statement only works if Soderbergh himself happens to be God.

I don’t believe he is, to be clear. And I think an artist like this one who finds the tool useful in achieving his overall artistic vision is something we should be paying attention to, not dismissing out of hand. The Salon piece notes that Soderbergh has routinely been a director who has embraced the use of new technology before launching into this diatribe.

But just because Soderbergh jumping at AI could be seen from a mile away doesn’t make it any less disappointing, nor does it excuse his reluctance to thoughtfully engage with others’ criticisms about the technology. If “The Christophers” is to be believed, art that tries to imitate a certain style is little more than hollow, emotionless posturing. Generative AI is the same: mere mimicry, devoid of the humanity that makes art . . . well, art. And by being so willfully averse to acknowledging the ways AI and art conflict — not to mention its ramifications for others in his industry — Soderbergh’s take on an artist losing his touch in “The Christophers” is disappointingly apt.

Of course the art that AI “creates” is mimicry and devoid of humanity. That’s definitionally how the tool works. And anyone who thinks they’re going to rely on an AI tool to “create art” is on a fool’s mission. It simply won’t work because it’s not designed to work that way. Instead, it’s a tool to get you some components of what you need to create an overall artistic vision, which is still led by a very human artist. Will there be work done by an AI on the margins in filmmaking that would normally have been done via paid workers in the industry. Perhaps. Likely, even. But will the limited use of these tools also lower the barrier of entry in terms of skill set needed and budget to produce films, thereby creating even more output of films overall? I’m struggling to see how that would not be the case.

And at the end of the day, there’s still an artist calling the shots. Perhaps fewer overall total artists involved in a single movie, but the limited use of AI tools doesn’t somehow suck the entire soul from a film anymore than the ease of digital footage editing over the use of film does. And just like a movie that is almost nothing other than pretty CGI graphics, but which otherwise sucks, lazy people trying to create entire films with AI are going to fail. And fail hard.

Say it with me now: there is more nuance to this conversation than the hardliners and evangelists are bothering to acknowledge.

In a follow-up chat with Variety, Soderbergh expanded on his initial comments about using AI in future films. “I’m just not threatened by it . . . Ten years ago, I would have needed to engage a visual effects house at an unbelievable cost to come up with this stuff,” he said. “No longer. My job is to deliver a good movie, period. And this tool showed up at a moment when I needed it. I don’t think it’s the solution to everything, and I don’t think it’s the death of everything . . . There are some people that I have absolute love and respect for that refuse to engage with it. That’s their privilege. But I’m not built that way. You show me a new tool, I want to get my hands on it and see what’s going on.”

That’s an artist saying that, folks, not some Silicone Valley tech bro. And, to be clear, he might get it wrong. He may use the tool and his product might suck out loud. But to try to abort the use of a tool before it’s even been explored seems silly.

Filed Under: ai, filmmaking, generative ai, steven soderbergh